Hall costumes, black and gold
Arisia was this last weekend. I love Arisia. Some people go there for the panels, some for the parties, some to shop or see famous people or buy art… I go for an excuse to wear anything I want, and dress my family up as well. I often go with a color theme, both because it’s striking, and because it makes it easy to find the kids. I may have finished the color coded sets though, I may be moving on to themes. We’ll see.
This particular set has been sitting in my head for at least 2 years. I don’t remember when I found the black and gold patterned velvet. I bought every bit the discount fabric store had, which was 5 yards. Then I started imagining. I needed the perfect costume for it though, because every time I picked it up it made me so very happy, and I knew I couldn’t waste it. Then when I had it designed, I needed the time, because it had to be done right. Well, it’s still not quite done, but it was wearable. This one I’m likely to go over in detail later on, but I wanted to get the basics down while I’m still excited.
My dress is in stretch velvet. The waist and skirt are a patterned black and bronze, and the bodice is black with a gold base fabric. There’s probably a name for that. The sleeves are two layers of fake silk, (but it’s a good fake), in slightly different colors. They’re open sleeves, with long points held down by beads. I need more pictures, don’t I?
My husband has a vest of black and bronze, with a built in ‘belt’ of plain black velvet. His hat is a Renaissance Italian style rolled hat, which needs more embellishment. His shirt is the shape of a modern dress shirt, with the laced and ruffled front of a ‘pirate’ or ‘poet’ shirt. That’s probably the most skilled sewing work in the whole set.
My daughter has a long loose velvet gown which I made to double as a tunic for myself. It works pretty well. The black vest over it gives it shape, but the fabric is so light that I put beaded fringe on it to keep it in place. The mask is not an intended part of her costume.
My son has a shirt like his dad’s, except with buttons instead of lacing. He has a vest identical to his sister’s, except a little smaller, and a hat which was supposed to be dad’s, but came out too small by accident. The pants are from his Firebird Prince costume, but I finished the legs with elastic, which I didn’t have time to do before.
Total time from beginning of cutting to (current) end of sewing: almost exactly two weeks.
I will definitely talk about this in detail, in part because I haven’t solved all the problems yet, and in part because I’m still somewhat obsessed.
Here’s the little one with a plastic cup that I swear isn’t as enormous as it looks. One of these days I will learn to take decent pictures. As it is, I can get ok ones only outside during the day, and only then by chance.
Hearth Maker 